# s-brain: how to manage big and small numbers ...

<< Previous  studies  have  highlighted  the  general  region  where  the  brain  handles numbers  -  in  an  area  called  the  fronto-parietal  cortex,  which  runs  approximately  from the  top  of  the  head  to  just  above  the  ear.  But  scientists  are  in  the  dark  about  how exactly  the  brain  unpicks  and  processes  numbers >>

<< Dr  Qadeer  Arshad (..) said:  "Following  early  insights  from  stroke  patients  we  wanted  to  find  out exactly  how  the  brain  processes  numbers.  In  our  new  study,  in  which  we  used  healthy volunteers,  we  found  the  left  side  processes  large  numbers,  and  the  right  processes small  numbers.  So  for  instance  if  you  were  looking  at  a  clock,  the  numbers  one  to  six would  be  processed  on  the  right  side  of  the  brain,  and  six  to  twelve  would  be processed  on  the  left." >>

Kate Wighton. Big  and  small  numbers  are  processed  in  different  sides of the brain. 04 March 2016.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_4-3-2016-9-47-53

<<  This allowed us to demonstrate the first systematic bidirectional modulation of numerical magnitude toward either higher or lower numbers, independently of either eye movements or spatial attention mediated biases >>

<< (..) numerical allocation is continually updated in a contextual manner based upon relative magnitude, with the right hemisphere responsible for smaller magnitudes and the left hemisphere for larger magnitudes >>

Qadeer Arshad, Yuliya Nigmatullina, et al. Bidirectional Modulation of Numerical Magnitude. Cereb. Cortex (2016) doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv344 First published online: February 14, 2016

http://m.cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/02/14/cercor.bhv344.abstract?sid=5874fc1d-ce40-475e-a509-77e48bfaee81